NASCAR founders's great grandson ready for truck series debut

Ben Kennedy makes his debut in the Truck Series UNOH 200 tonight.

Getty Images for NASCAR

By Godwin Kelly

Published: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 at 11:33 PM.

Ben Kennedy’s dream of competing in a NASCAR national series race will be realized tonight when the 21-year-old, Daytona Beach native races in the Camping World Truck Series UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“This has definitely been a dream of mine, especially in the past few years,” Kennedy, a great grandson of NASCAR founder William H.G. France, said Monday in a phone interview. “This seemed like something that would be impossible for me to do at a point in time and now it’s happening. This should be pretty cool.”

Kennedy is the son of Lesa France Kennedy, CEO of the International Speedway Corp., which owns and operates a dozen big-league race tracks, including flagship Daytona International Speedway.

“I’m really excited for him,” Lesa Kennedy said by phone. “It’s a great opportunity. It’s something he’s passionate about. I always feel a little nervous. That’s not going to change.”

Kennedy will be competing under the Ben Kennedy Racing banner, but the No. 96 Chevrolet truck was prepared, and is being crewed, by Turner Scott Motorsports.

“We’re excited to be on board with them,” Ben Kennedy said. “We have (crew chief) Chris Carrier with us and he has experience all the way up to the Cup Series level.”

On the Turner Scott website, Carrier says he looks forward to competing once again in the truck series.

Ben Kennedy’s dream of competing in a NASCAR national series race will be realized tonight when the 21-year-old, Daytona Beach native races in the Camping World Truck Series UNOH 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“This has definitely been a dream of mine, especially in the past few years,” Kennedy, a great grandson of NASCAR founder William H.G. France, said Monday in a phone interview. “This seemed like something that would be impossible for me to do at a point in time and now it’s happening. This should be pretty cool.”

Kennedy is the son of Lesa France Kennedy, CEO of the International Speedway Corp., which owns and operates a dozen big-league race tracks, including flagship Daytona International Speedway.

“I’m really excited for him,” Lesa Kennedy said by phone. “It’s a great opportunity. It’s something he’s passionate about. I always feel a little nervous. That’s not going to change.”

Kennedy will be competing under the Ben Kennedy Racing banner, but the No. 96 Chevrolet truck was prepared, and is being crewed, by Turner Scott Motorsports.

“We’re excited to be on board with them,” Ben Kennedy said. “We have (crew chief) Chris Carrier with us and he has experience all the way up to the Cup Series level.”

On the Turner Scott website, Carrier says he looks forward to competing once again in the truck series.

“I enjoy working with young talent,” Carrier says. “We have a great team behind us at Turner Scott Motorsports and I am looking forward to getting to work.”

This will be the first of four forays into the 2013 truck series for Kennedy. His primary mission is to compete for NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship honors.

He has two wins in nine K&N starts this season and stands third in championship points. In addition, Kennedy has made several Late Model starts as a way to hone his driving skills.

Making his truck debut at Bristol seemed like the logical choice for Kennedy.

“It’s your basic short-track night racing,” he said. “I’ve always enjoyed running short tracks. Bristol is the closest thing to replicate the environment that I’m comfortable with, and I have experience there. We’ve run the K&N Series there a couple of times.”

Kennedy has tested twice in the truck. His first time was last year when he turned laps at New Smyrna Speedway. A few weeks ago, he tested at Bristol with Carrier and other members of Turner Scott.

“It was a really good learning experience,” he said. “Hopefully we take what we learned there and it applies to the race on Wednesday.”

Kennedy, now a senior in college, started his racing career at Little New Smyrna Speedway, a quarter-midget track built on the short track’s infield. From there, he went through the racing ranks to get to this position — the Bristol event is a graduation day of sorts.

“This is going to the next level, which relates to the high school to college transition,” he said.

Several members of the France family will be at Bristol to support Kennedy’s debut, but none more excited and anxious than his mother.

“I’m proud of what he’s been doing on the track and equally as proud of what he’s doing off the track with school and other activities he is involved in,” she said.